


Falling Further

by everythingmurky



Series: These Dangerous Extra Thoughts [2]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Denial, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Season/Series 03, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 17:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10621257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingmurky/pseuds/everythingmurky
Summary: Hardy's attempt at distance backfires in more than one way.(Follows up Too Close for Comfort.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I was thinking I was done with the idea outlined in Too Close for Comfort, but I had some thoughts about Hardy meeting Miller after the date, and this happened.
> 
> *shakes head at self*

* * *

Zoe had been... nice.

He'd been a complete git, but she was nice.

He didn't know that he could have done much better, not when he seemed to mess up right and left. First the suit. Then the daughter his profile hadn't mentioned—and his own fumbling explanation that he'd picked Zoe while his mind went into paranoid mode—had Daisy done that because she thought it would look bad for him or because she didn't want to acknowledge him as a father? He didn't know. He couldn't stop thinking about it over the course of their meal.

Zoe had been nervous, too, but her awkwardness seemed only to linger because he was right shite at the whole thing. He kept saying the wrong thing or talking about the wrong subject—he didn't think anyone could do worse than mentioning he was looking into a rape case on a date, but maybe murder would have been. He didn't know. After school, he'd dated cops. Hell, he'd married one. That was their job. Their life. They understood. Zoe did not.

(Miller would have.)

He'd taken a walk home to clear his head, not wanting to go straight to Daisy with all those thoughts in his head, and he'd turned the corner right into an accusing Miller. She'd pushed him about the date, asking if he'd kissed Zoe.

(He absolutely refused to admit, even to himself, that if there was a cheeky date he was going to kiss it was was Miller.)

Then she'd gotten the text about the DNA, and it was back to work, which was the safest (most dangerous) place to be.

* * *

Daisy admitted to him what was going on.

(Getting parenting advice from Chloe Latimer was highly disturbing. It also proved just how shite at this he was, if she could and had done better.)

He was both furious and horrified, guilt-ridden and feeling helpless. He didn't know how to help his daughter, and a part of him _did_ want to yell, to demand of her how she could be stupid enough to have one of those pictures on her phone in the first place as well as what the hell was wrong with her choice of friends that they'd do this to her?

He didn't yell. He retreated into himself, not sure how to fix any of this. He'd failed her again, and this failure was ten times worse than usual. She'd thrown the _you're never here_ line at him, and he hated himself again for going on that stupid bloody date. If he hadn't been trying to distance himself from Miller maybe he would have been able to see what was going on in his own house.

(He was reminded unpleasantly of how Tess' affair had blindsided him. It made him sick. He should be better at this. He was supposed to be a cop, damn it, not so completely oblivious to his own household.)

And then, to make it that much better, he was sitting across from Miller, in his home.

He was desperate for the advice, not able to concentrate on the case, and wanting her to fix Daisy like she'd fixed him, but she didn't even see that. Yes, she volunteered to talk to Daisy, and he wanted her to.

A second more, and he would have told her to do it. Maybe a woman would have been better.

(It was Miller. Of course she would have done better than he did, even if her son was a little bastard. The other one—what was his name?—was still decent, but the older boy could use a good bollocking.)

Then the call came, and it was back to work.

* * *

A part of him was aware that if he really wanted to put distance between himself and Miller, he'd have to give up the job, but since they were both clinging to their work like their only lifeline, afraid of going under, he knew he wouldn't.

And he would keep getting closer, even when he knew he shouldn't.


End file.
